I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

Cut the IRS Off Your

Holiday Gift List 1

Do THIS (Not That) 2

The Real-Life Grinch

Who Banned

Christmas

3

Networking Done

Right 3

Call-in Times 3

Looking for

Someone You Can

Rely On?

4

What I’m Reading… 4

L I N D S E Y & WA L D O Taxing Times

D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1 2

S P E C I A L P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

• Tax planning tips

• Networking

• Christmas trivia

• Call-in times

• Funnies

• and more...

CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS

“You see the numbers, we look for the opportunities.”

Dedicated to helping our clients keep the money that belongs to them through a focus on tax.

Cut the IRS Off Your Holiday Gift List

Once the holidays hit, proactive tax planning generally goes out the window.

Many forget, or simply aren’t aware, that there are things you must do before Decem-

ber 31st to help you save on taxes. Waiting until April 15th to put your financial house in

order is a straight path to paying higher taxes.

Here are some things you can do now to be sure you’re not left holding the bag and

handing it to Uncle Sam:

֎ Charitable Giving – One often overlooked, but creative way to give is by donating

appreciated securities instead of cash. By donating securities, you avoid paying

capital gains taxes on the sale, but get to deduct the full market value of the securi-

ties as a charitable contribution.

֎ RMDs – If you have qualified retirement accounts and are over 70 ½, the govern-

ment requires you to take required minimum distributions (RMDs). Failure to take

RMDs can result in a 50% penalty.

֎ Roth Conversion – Roth conversions may, or may not, make sense for you, de-

pending on your income level. Remember, you don’t typically want to take money

out of your Roth IRA, or 401(k), if it will bump you into a higher tax bracket.

֎ Offsetting Gains and Losses – Another overlooked strategy is to offset your capital

gains and losses. For instance, if you’re selling highly appreciated assets such as

securities or real estate, consider offsetting the gain by selling underperforming

securities. The losses will reduce the capital gains, and therefore the taxes.

֎ Paycheck Checkup - You can perform a paycheck, or pension income, checkup

using the IRS’ Tax Withholding Estimator. If the Tax Withholding Estimator recom-

mends a change, there is still time to submit a new W-4, W-4P, or adjust your last

quarter estimated

tax payment.

Workers who re-

ceive self-

employment in-

come, or work in

the gig-economy,

should be sure to

take these earn-

ings into account

when filling out the

Tax Withholding

Estimator.

There are a lot of op-

portunities to save

money in taxes. It’s just

a matter of starting be-

fore it’s too late.

P A G E 2 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1 2 T A X I N G T I M E S

Do THIS (Not That) How the Tax Code Makes Regular Taxpayers Angry

Many people think that preparing taxes for a living is a somewhat easy assignment. Bless their hearts. It's NOT just "filling in the boxes" and having the spreadsheets, or the software, spit out the results. I WISH it were so simple. There are three big reasons why it's much harder than that -- even for many profession-als. 1) The tax code is incredibly long. Not surprisingly, the length of the tax code (Title 26) depends on how you define it. Some people like to quote a 70,000+ page number. Others put it closer to 2,600 pages. The best information I can track down puts the tax code at 2.4 million words with regulations three times that long. An estimated 6 times long-er than the 402,000 words it contained in 1986. For a comparison, there are 783,000 words in the King James Bible and 557,000 in War and Peace. 2) The code also happens to be pretty complicated and laden with contradictory incentives. Take this credit, and watch that other credit go bye-bye. Fail to deduct this item, and then you won't be able to deduct that other item. You get the picture. Sorting through all of them is most definitely NOT a task for a computer software program. It requires sitting down with an individual, a business owner, a family, determining what they most care about, and then use that complicated code to plan for it all properly. Really, that's the only way to do it. Everything else is just "after-the-fact" clean-up work. Which is why it's so critical to meet with someone before the end of the year to make sure that you're set up to hold a tax position which repre-sents the real picture of where you really want to be going. This is the essence of tax planning. Some may say that this is overstating it -- but after years of doing this, I've become convinced that it's the truth. I'm in the business of helping you fulfill your dreams by helping you hold on to as much income/revenue as possible! 3) Oh, and as I alluded to previously, there is one more big reason this job is no cupcake -- staying up to date with how the law is con-stantly changing. And I'm as patriotic as the next person ... but Congress makes THIS task no cupcake. Despite what certain fringe voices might claim (and they cite all kinds of "facts" behind their claims), the truth is that we don't have the choice to "not file" or "not pay" what the tax laws say we owe. That's why the IRS audits returns and has all sorts of "encouragements" (liens, refund off-sets) to encourage us to file by each April 15, and to do so correctly.

But even with automatic payroll deductions, etc. we U.S. taxpayers are trusted to fill out the forms, ensure the correct amount was withheld, and let the IRS know what our true final bill was. That's called tax filing. And if we discover that we owe the U.S. Treasury, then our system (as it stands now) relies on us to send in the necessary payments. This, of course, is what we spend much of our time on around here at Team Lindsey -- helping YOU do this ethically, but en-suring you're not overpaying. But, Congress makes this much harder than they need to. They do this -- probably unintentionally -- by tinkering with our tax laws so much. They change them, sometimes slightly, sometimes quite a bit, and they do so constantly. What's worse is the annual rite of procrastination in the House and Senate. I see this all the time. As a regular course of business. And these delays in tax changes -- or the decision to make some laws retroactive months later (extenders, estate tax, etc.) -- totally screw up basic tax planning, sometimes negating options that could have been used to legally lower a tax bill. (Which, incidentally, is why I have to pay so much attention to what's happening in the legislation NOW, during the offseason. I do this so you don't have to.)

So, some people fudge their re-turns. And, unfortunately, they feel justified in doing so. One example from a few years back is the first-time homebuyer credit that was created ... then revised ... and revised again. Many homebuy-ers had to "pay back" a credit that was taken under existing law -- then later canceled.

And I know (from conversations with real people) how many felt justi-fied in finding ways to "skim back" (i.e., fudge) that $500 back into their returns because they were annoyed at how Congress handled it. And there are plenty other tax laws with similar histories that tick off filers enough so that they look for ways of getting payback when they fill out their 1040s. Now, I'm not condoning these taxpayers' decisions to "even up" the tax code where they may find it unfair. Life can be unfair and taxes are a part of that often unfair life. But, Congress can do a lot to prevent these “they hurt me, so I'll hurt the tax system right back” attitudes, by doing its tax-writing job in a more ra-tional and professional manner.

Until it does, well then Continued on page 3

T A X I N G T I M E S P A G E 3 V O L U M E 1 1 , I S S U E 1 2

Capitol Hill is going to keep creating bad attitudes. But here's where some hope comes in... For my clients and contacts, you can rest assured that we are paying attention ... and that we will be on top of even these woefully-procrastinating legislators. We'll do all that is ethically possible to make sure you don't make moves that you'll regret after-the-fact. And the best way to help us help YOU, is by giving us a call to talk things through NOW, while we can still make a difference with 2019 returns.

"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."- Dale Carnegie

The Real-Life Grinch Who Banned Christmas As important as Christmas is to us today, it’s only been in the past 150 years or so that it has been recognized as an official American holiday. Alabama was the first state in the union to officially recognize Christmas as a holiday, in 1836. In 1647, the English Parliament passed a law making Christmas illegal. The Puritan leader Oli-ver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry on what was supposed to be a holy day to be immoral, banned the celebration of Christmas festivities. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power, in 1660. The first department store to feature a visit with Santa was the J. W. Parkinson’s store in Philadelphia, in 1841. Astonishingly, no other department stores copied this event until 1891 when a store in Boston repeated it. Before long, lines of children formed at stores across America to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him their Christmas wish list. The department store Santa has been im-mortalized in films such as Miracle on 34th Street and A Christmas Story. Why are there 12 days of Christmas? Traditionally, it took the ‘Three Kings’ this number of days to find the baby Jesus. Their arrival on the twelfth day was celebrated in the form of the Feast of Epiphany in medieval France, and later in other countries. One of the most popular Christmas songs ever may have been written for Thanksgiving. “The One Horse Open Sleigh,” written by James Pierpont, was originally published in 1857. Two years later, the title was changed to “Jingle Bells”, or “The One Horse Open Sleigh.” It was apparently written as a comical song and used in minstrel shows at the time. It has been reported that Pierpont, a church organist, wrote his popular song for his father’s Sunday School class for Thanksgiving, but it proved so pop-ular, it was sung at Christmas. Interestingly enough, this “merry little jingle” makes no mention of Christmas.

This month’s special Member-Only call-in times for

Lindsey’s Insider’s Circle will be 12/16/19 from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

To schedule your appointment,

contact Kristen at (251) 633-4070.

Not a member yet? Find out how to become one TODAY!

Networking Done Right If you want to succeed in your business, whether

that’s a part-time Mary Kay® gig, or a multi-company empire, then meeting people who’ve already succeed-ed before you is going to be a huge help. In fact, this could be the sole difference between success and fail-ure. But how do you network locally and at seminars?

Learn from my mistakes… and from many years of watching these groups work. Of course, these tips

hold true for online networking as well.

I think it was renowned author and speaker Bob Burg, who said: “All things being equal, people will do busi-

ness with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.” All things not being equal, peo-

ple still prefer to do business with people they like.

If you want someone to share with you their success stories for building their business, then step number one is to build a friendship with them. Get to know

them personally, and allow them to get to know you. Show a little vulnerability, as well as curiosity and

interest toward them.

Once you have a relationship, then talk business.

Do THIS (Not That) How the Tax Code Makes Regular Taxpayers Angry

—continued from page 2

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If and only to the extent that this publication contains contributions from tax professionals who are subject to the rules of professional conduct set forth in Circular 230, as promulgated by the United States Department of the Treasury, the publisher, on behalf, of those contributors, hereby states that any U.S. federal tax advice that is contained in such contributions was not intended or written to be used by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed on the taxpayer by the Internal Revenue Service, and it cannot be used by any taxpayer for such purposes.

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Looking for Someone You Can Rely On? We really believe in the process of referrals, so part of the service we pro-

vide is to be sure to refer our clients and associates to other qualified

businesspeople in the community.

Below, you’ll find a list of areas in which we know very credible, ethical,

and outstanding professionals. If you’re looking for a professional in a

specific area we’ve listed, please feel free to contact us. We will be glad to

put you in touch with the people we know who provide these services.

Mortgage Broker

Attorney

Heating & A/C Repair

Welding Supplies

Travel Agent

Cultured Marble

Realtor

Auto /Home /Life Insurance

Printer

Wedding/Event Venue

Home Inspector

Banker

Custom Monogramming & Embroidery

Identity Theft Protection

Executive Leadership Coach

iPhone and Tablet Repair

Investment Advisor

Electrician

What I’m Reading… NOW A Fatal Secret by Faith Martin Twisted Leadership: How to Engage the Full Talents of Everyone in Your Organization by Charles C. Manz and Craig L. Pearce

RECENTLY The Warden’s Son by C.G. Cooper Flipping the Switch by John G. Miller

Whichever you celebrate, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season!